The mission of the UCSF-Gladstone CFAR is to promote multi-disciplinary HIV research, and the Developmental Core plays a central role. The Developmental Core seeks to accelerate the growth of early-career HIV investigators by providing access to its widely recognized two-year mentoring program, by conducting a robust, peer-reviewed pilot grants program and by promoting assembly of multidisciplinary teams involving both early career and senior investigators to tackle leading-edge questions emerging in HIV research. The Core will continue to advance its heartfelt goals to support emerging leaders in HIV research via 3 specific aims: Aim 1: To sustain and refine a comprehensive two-year mentoring program for early career HIV investigators; Aim 2: To conduct annual ?Mentoring the Mentors? workshops to train HIV researchers from CFARs around the U.S. in tools and techniques of mentoring; and Aim 3: To support innovative research and the development of early stage investigators (ESIs) through four different types of peer-reviewed awards. The Developmental Core's active mentoring program and pilot and supplemental grants program are CFAR's primary vehicles for the support of early career HIV scientists. From 2012-2016, the Developmental Core mentored 69 early career investigators in its formal Mentoring Program and launched the innovative ?Mentoring the Mentors? program to train HIV researchers from around the country in the tools and techniques of effective mentoring. During the same time period, CFAR funded 64 projects with a total amount of $2.6M from its grants program. The Developmental Core helped support 15 supplemental awards for early stage investigators (totaling $3.1M) in a variety of fields, including HIV cure, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), genomic wide association studies, and implementation science.